The civil service is independent of government and composed mainly of
career bureaucrats hired on professional merit rather than appointed
or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions
of political leadership. A civil servant or public servant is a person
employed in the public sector employed for a government department or
agency. The extent of civil servants of a state as part of the "civil
service" varies from country to country. In the United Kingdom, for
instance, only Crown (national government) employees are referred to
as civil servants whereas county or city employees are not.
Many consider the study of service to be a part of the field of public
administration. Workers in "non-departmental public bodies" (sometimes
called "Quangos") may also be classed as civil servants for the
purpose of statistics and possibly for their terms and conditions.
Collectively a state's civil servants form its civil service or public
service.
An international civil servant or international staff member is a
civilian employee who is employed by an intergovernmental
organization. These international civil servants do not resort under
any national legislation (from which they have immunity of
jurisdiction) but are governed by internal staff regulations. All
disputes related to international civil service are brought before
special tribunals created by these international organizations such
as, for instance, the Administrative Tribunal of the ILO.
Specific referral can be made to the International Civil Service
Commission (ICSC) of the United Nations, an independent expert body
established by the
United NationsUnited Nations General Assembly. Its mandate is to
regulate and coordinate the conditions of service of staff in the
United NationsUnited Nations common system, while promoting and maintaining high
standards in the international civil service.

The origin[1] of the modern meritocratic civil service can be traced
back to
Imperial examinationImperial examination founded in Imperial China. The Imperial
exam based on merit[2] was designed to select the best administrative
officials for the state's bureaucracy. This system had a huge
influence on both society and culture in
Imperial ChinaImperial China and was
directly responsible for the creation of a class of
scholar-bureaucrats irrespective of their family pedigree.[3]
Originally appointments to the bureaucracy were based on the patronage
of aristocrats; During Han dynasty,
Emperor Wu of HanEmperor Wu of Han established the
xiaolian system of recommendation by superiors for appointments to
office. In the areas of administration, especially the military,
appointments were based solely on merit. This was an early form of the
imperial examinations, transitioning from inheritance and patronage to
merit, in which local officials would select candidates to take part
in an examination of the Confucian classics.[3] After the fall of the
Han dynasty, the Chinese bureaucracy regressed into a semi-merit
system known as the nine-rank system.
This system was reversed during the short-lived Sui dynasty
(581–618), which initiated a civil service bureaucracy recruited
through written examinations and recommendation. The first civil
service examination system was established by Emperor Wen of Sui.
Emperor Yang of SuiEmperor Yang of Sui established a new category of recommended
candidates for the mandarinate in AD 605. The following Tang dynasty
(618–907) adopted the same measures for drafting officials, and
decreasingly relied on aristocratic recommendations and more and more
on promotion based on the results of written examinations.The
structure of the examination system was extensively expanded during
the reign of Wu Zetian[4] The system reached its apogee during the
Song dynasty.[5]
In theory, the Chinese civil service system provided one of the major
outlets for social mobility in Chinese society, although in practice,
due to the time-consuming nature of the study, the examination was
generally only taken by sons of the landed gentry.[6] The examination
tested the candidate's memorization of the Nine Classics of
Confucianism and his ability to compose poetry using fixed and
traditional forms and calligraphy. In the late 19th century the system
came under increasing internal dissatisfaction, and it was criticized
as not reflecting the candidate's ability to govern well, and for
giving precedence to style over content and originality of thought.
The system was finally abolished by the
Qing governmentQing government in 1905 as
part of the
New Policies reform package.
The Chinese system was often admired by European commentators from the
16th century onward.[7]
Modern civil service[edit]
In the 18th century, in response to economic changes and the growth of
the British Empire, the bureaucracy of institutions such as the Office
of Works and the
Navy BoardNavy Board greatly expanded. Each had its own system,
but in general, staff were appointed through patronage or outright
purchase. By the 19th century, it became increasingly clear that these
arrangements were falling short. "The origins of the British civil
service are better known. During the eighteenth century a number of
Englishmen wrote in praise of the Chinese examination system, some of
them going so far as to urge the adoption for England of something
similar. The first concrete step in this direction was taken by the
British
East India CompanyEast India Company in 1806."[8] In that year, the Honourable
East India CompanyEast India Company established a college, the East India Company
College, near London to train and examine administrators of the
Company's territories in India.[9] "The proposal for establishing this
college came, significantly, from members of the East India Company's
trading post in Canton, China."[8] Examinations for the Indian 'civil
service'—a term coined by the Company—were introduced in 1829.[10]
British efforts at reform were influenced by the imperial examinations
system and meritocratic system of China. Thomas Taylor Meadows,
Britain's consul in Guangzhou, China argued in his Desultory Notes on
the Government and People of China, published in 1847, that "the long
duration of the Chinese empire is solely and altogether owing to the
good government which consists in the advancement of men of talent and
merit only," and that the British must reform their civil service by
making the institution meritocratic.[8]

Charles Trevelyan, an architect of Her Majesty's Civil Service,
established in 1855 on his recommendations.

In 1853 the
Chancellor of the ExchequerChancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone,
commissioned Sir Stafford Northcote and Charles Trevelyan to look into
the operation and organisation of the Civil Service. Influenced by the
Chinese imperial examinations, the
Northcote–Trevelyan ReportNorthcote–Trevelyan Report of
1854 made four principal recommendations: that recruitment should be
on the basis of merit determined through competitive examination, that
candidates should have a solid general education to enable
inter-departmental transfers, that recruits should be graded into a
hierarchy and that promotion should be through achievement, rather
than 'preferment, patronage or purchase'. It also recommended a clear
division between staff responsible for routine ("mechanical") work,
and those engaged in policy formulation and implementation in an
"administrative" class.[11]
The report was well-timed, because bureaucratic chaos during the
Crimean WarCrimean War was causing a clamour for the change. The report's
conclusions were immediately implemented, and a permanent, unified and
politically neutral civil service was introduced as Her Majesty's
Civil Service. A
Civil Service Commission was also set up in 1855 to
oversee open recruitment and end patronage, and most of the other
Northcote–Trevelyan recommendations were implemented over some
years.[12]
The same model, the Imperial Civil Service, was implemented in British
India from 1858, after the demise of the East India Company's rule in
India through the
Indian Rebellion of 1857Indian Rebellion of 1857 which came close to
toppling British rule in the country.[13]
The Northcote–Trevelyan model remained essentially stable for a
hundred years. This was a tribute to its success in removing
corruption, delivering public services (even under the stress of two
world wars), and responding effectively to political change. It also
had a great international influence and was adapted by members of the
Commonwealth. The
Pendleton Civil Service Reform ActPendleton Civil Service Reform Act established a
modern civil service in the United States, and by the turn of the 20th
century almost all Western governments had implemented similar
reforms.
By country[edit]
Brazil[edit]
Main article: Brazilian Civil Service
Civil servants in Brazil (Portuguese: servidores públicos) are those
working in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the
federal, state, or municipal government and the government of
Brasília, including congressmen, senators, mayors, ministers, the
president of the republic, and workers in government-owned
corporations.
Career civil servants (not temporary workers or politicians) are hired
only externally on the basis of entrance examinations (Portuguese:
concurso público).[14] It usually consists of a written test; some
posts may require physical tests (such as policemen), or oral tests
(such as professors, judges, prosecutors and attorneys). The rank
according to the examination score is used for filling the vacancies.
Entrance examinations are conducted by several institutions with a
government mandate, such as CESPE (which belongs to the University of
Brasília) and the Cesgranrio Foundation (which is part of the Federal
University of Rio de Janeiro).
The labor laws and social insurance for civil servants are different
from private workers; even between government branches (like different
states or cities), the law and insurance differ.
The posts usually are ranked by titles, the most common are technician
for high school literates and analyst for undergraduates. There's also
higher post ranks like auditor, fiscal, chief of police, prosecutor,
judge, attorney, etc.
The law does not allow servants to upgrade or downgrade posts
internally; they need to be selected in separate external entrance
examinations.
Canada[edit]
Main article: Public Service of Canada
In Canada, the civil service at the federal level is known as the
Public Service of Canada, with each of the ten provincial governments
as well as the three territorial governments also having their own
separate civil services. The federal civil service consists of all
employees of the crown except for ministers' exempt staff, members of
the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and members of the Canadian Armed
Forces as they are not civil servants.[15] There are approximately
257,000 federal civil servants (2015),[15] and more than 350,000
employees at the provincial and territorial levels.[16]
China[edit]
One of the oldest examples of a civil service based on meritocracy is
the Imperial bureaucracy of China, which can be traced as far back as
the
Qin dynastyQin dynasty (221–207 BC). However, the civil service
examinations were practiced on a much smaller scale in comparison to
the stronger, centralized bureaucracy of the Song dynasty
(960–1279). In response to the regional military rule of jiedushi
and the loss of civil authority during the late Tang period and Five
Dynasties (907–960), the Song emperors were eager to implement a
system where civil officials would owe their social prestige to the
central court and gain their salaries strictly from the central
government. This ideal was not fully achieved since many scholar
officials were affluent landowners and were engaged in many anonymous
business affairs in an age of economic revolution in China.
Nonetheless, gaining a degree through three levels of
examination—prefectural exams, provincial exams, and the prestigious
palace exams—was a far more desirable goal in society than becoming
a merchant. This was because the mercantile class was traditionally
regarded with some disdain by the scholar-official class.
This class of state bureaucrats in the Song period were far less
aristocratic than their Tang predecessors. The examinations were
carefully structured in order to ensure that people of lesser means
than what was available to candidates born into wealthy, landowning
families were given a greater chance to pass the exams and obtain an
official degree. This included the employment of a bureau of copyists
who would rewrite all of the candidates' exams in order to mask their
handwriting and thus prevent favoritism by graders of the exams who
might otherwise recognize a candidate's handwriting. The advent of
widespread printing in the Song period allowed many more examination
candidates access to the Confucian texts whose mastery was required
for passing the exams.
Hong Kong and
MacauMacau have separate civil service systems:

Hong Kong Civil Service
Secretariat for Administration and Justice is responsible for the
civil service in Macau

France[edit]
Main article: French Civil Service
The civil service in France (fonction publique) is often incorrectly
considered to include all government employees including employees of
public corporations, such as SNCF.
Public sector employment is classified into three services; State
service, Local service and Hospital service. According to government
statistics there were 5.5 million public sector employees in
2011.[17][18]

Category
Central Government
Local Government
Health service
Total

Education
1,360.6

1,360.6

Police
284.4
40

324.4

Defence
280.7

280.7

Health & Social

241
1,153
1,394.0

Other
516.1
1,631

2,147.1

Total
2,441.8
1,912
1,153
5,506.8

% Civil servants[19]
62%
75%
72%
-

Germany[edit]
The Public Service in Germany (Öffentlicher Dienst) employed 4.6
million persons as of 2011[update].[20] Public servants are
organized[by whom?] into three categories: blue-collar workers
(Arbeiter), salaried employees, (Angestellte), and civil servants
(Beamte). All three groups are employed by public bodies
(Körperschaften des öffentlichen Rechts), such as counties (Kreise),
states, the federal government, etc. In addition to employees directly
employed by the state another 1.6 million persons are employed by
state owned enterprises[21]

Category
Federal Government
Regional Government
Municipal Government
Social Security
Total

State employees
458
2,114.4
1,220.7
378.6
4,171.7

government owned enterprises
240.4
387.1
950.2
24.5
1,602.1

Total
698.4
2,501.5
2,170.9
403.1
5,733.8

Arbeiter in public service work mostly in low-skilled jobs such as
construction, waste collection or manual office work. In some cases,
training is not obligatory.
Angestellte work in technical, vocational, and office work in a very
large range of occupational fields. In most cases, they have received
training aside from their government agency prior to employment- for
example, they learned to program computers before a government agency
hired them to do that.
Beamte has been a title for government employees for several centuries
in German states, but became a standardized group in 1794.[citation
needed] Soldiers other than conscripted soldiers are not Beamte but
have similar rights. Judges are not Beamte but have similar rights
too.[22] Public attorneys are all Beamte, while most (but not all)
professors are Beamte. The group of Beamte have the most secure
employment, and the amount they are paid is set by national pay
regulations (Besoldungsordnungen). Beamte are prohibited from
striking.
Arbeiter and Angestelle work with individual contracts, while Beamte
are appointed, employed, and removed by the Public Sector Service and
Loyalty law (öffentlich-rechtliches Dienst- und Treueverhältnis).
Beamte are divided into four levels:

Einfacher Dienst: ordinary civil service, corresponding to enlisted
ranks in the military, now largely obsolete
Mittlerer Dienst: medium-level civil service, corresponding to
non-commissioned officers in the military
Gehobener Dienst: senior civil service, including civil servant
positions such as Inspektor and above, corresponding to commissioned
officers from lieutenant to captain in the military
Höherer Dienst: higher civil service, including civil servant
positions such as Rat (Councillor) and above as well as academic
employees such as Professors, corresponding to major and above in the
military

Gehobener Dienst and Höherer Dienst both require a university
education or equivalent, at the very least a bachelor's or master's
degree, respectively.
Greece[edit]
Controversies about the institution of the Civil Service in Greece are
widespread. Typically, they concern the allegedly large
numbers[citation needed] of public employees, the lack of adequate
meritocracy in their employment, the strong ties that significant
portions of public employees maintain with political parties and the
clientelism that this relationship incubates, internal inequalities of
wages among public employees, and inequalities of the high income of
public employees relevant to that of private sector workers. The Civil
Service payscale is also controversial given the conditions before the
financial crisis that made being a civil servant a dream-job.[citation
needed]
India[edit]
Main article: Civil Services of India
In India, the Civil Service is defined as "appointive positions by the
Government in connection with the affairs of the Union and includes a
civilian in a Defence Service, except positions in the Indian Armed
Forces." The members of civil service serve at the pleasure of the
President of IndiaPresident of India and Article 311 of the constitution protects them
from politically motivated or vindictive action.
The
Civil Services of IndiaCivil Services of India can be classified into three types—the
All India Services, the Central Civil Services (Group A and B) and
State/Provincial Civil Services. The recruits are university graduates
(or above) selected through a rigorous system of examinations, called
the
Civil Services Examination (CSE) and its technical counterpart
known as the
Engineering Services Examination (ESE) both conducted by
the
Union Public Service CommissionUnion Public Service Commission (UPSC). The entry into the State
Civil Services is through a competitive examination conducted by every
state public service commission.
Senior positions in civil service are listed and named in the Order of
Precedence of India.
Ireland[edit]
Main article: Civil Service of the
RepublicRepublic of Ireland
The civil service of Ireland includes the employees of the Department
of State (excluded are government ministers and a small number of paid
political advisors) as well as a small number of core state agencies
such as the Office of the Revenue Commissioners, the Office of Public
Works, and the Public Appointments Service. The organisation of the
Irish Civil Service is very similar to the traditional organization of
the British Home Civil Service, and indeed the grading system in the
Irish Civil Service is nearly identical to the traditional grading
system of its British counterpart. In Ireland, public sector employees
such as teachers or members of the country's police force, An Garda
Síochána are not considered to be civil servants, but are rather
described as "public servants" (and form the public service of the
RepublicRepublic of Ireland).
Japan[edit]
Main article:
Civil serviceCivil service of Japan
Pakistan[edit]
Main category:
Civil serviceCivil service of Pakistan
Main article:
Central Superior ServicesCentral Superior Services of Pakistan
In
PakistanPakistan the FPSC (Federal Public Service Commission) conducts a
competitive examination for the
Central Superior ServicesCentral Superior Services of Pakistan
and other civil-service posts;
PakistanPakistan inherited this system from the
British Raj-era Indian Civil Service.
PakistanPakistan has federal civil servants serving in federal government
offices, with staff selected through the Federal Public Service
Commission. Similarly, Pakistani provinces select their own public
servants through provincial Public Service Commissions. The federal
services have some quota against provincial posts. while provincial
services have some quota in federal services.
Russia[edit]
Main article: Civil Service of the Russian Federation
Spain[edit]
The civil service in Spain (función pública) is usually considered
to include all the employees at the different levels of the Spanish
public administration: central government, autonomous communities, as
well as municipalities. There are three main categories of Spanish
public positions: temporary political posts ("personal funcionario
eventual"), which require a simple procedure for hiring and dismissal
and is associated to top level executives and advisors, statutory
permanent posts ("funcionarios de carrera"), which require a formal
procedure for access that usually involves a competition among
candidates and whose tenants are subject to a special statutory
relationship of work with their employers, and non statutory permanent
posts ("personal laboral"), which also require a formal procedure for
entry similar to the procedure required for the "funcionarios de
carrera", but whose tenants are subject to normal working conditions
and laws. Competitions differ notably among the state, the 17
autonomous communities and the city councils, and the "funcionarios de
carrera" and "personal laboral" examinations vary in difficulty from
one location to another.
As of 2013,[23] there were 2.6 million public employees in Spain, of
which 571,000 were civil servants and 2 million were non-civil
servants.

Category
Employee type
Central Government
Regional Government
Municipal
University
Total

Police
Civil servants
147
25

172

Defence
Civil servants
124

124

Health & Social
Civil servants

321

321

other public employees

170

170

Other
Civil servants
180

218
74
472

other public employees
119

330
75
524

Total
Civil servants
451
908
218
74
1651

other public employees
119
399
330
75
923

Total
570
1307
548
149
2574

In December 2011, the government of Rajoy announced that civil
servants have to serve a minimum 37.5 working hours per week
regardless of their place or kind of service.[24]
Taiwan[edit]
The ROC constitution specifies that public servant cannot be employed
without examination. The employment is usually lifelong (that is,
until age about retirement).
United Kingdom[edit]
Main articles: Civil Service (United Kingdom), Her Majesty's
Diplomatic Service, and
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland Civil Service

A breakdown by department of civil servants employed in the United
Kingdom in 2013

The civil service in the United Kingdom only includes Crown (i.e.
central government) employees, not parliamentary employees or local
government employees.
Public sector employees such as those in
education and the NHS are not considered to be civil servants. Police
officers and staff are also not civil servants. Total employment in
the public sector in the UK was 6.04 million in 2012 according to UK
Statistics office[25]
The number shown represents the number of thousands of people who are
employed. 278 is 278,000 people.

Category
Central government
Local government
Health service
Total

Police

278

278

Defence
193

193

Health & Social

364
1,565
1,929

Other
1,989
42

2,031

Total
2,182
2,290
1,565
6,037

Civil servants in the devolved government in
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland are not
part of the Home Civil Service, but constitute the separate Northern
Ireland Civil Service. Some employees of the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office are members of HM Diplomatic Service, which is associated with
but separate from the Civil Service.
United States[edit]
Main articles:
Government employees in the United States and United
States federal civil service
In the United States, the federal civil service was established in
1871. The Federal Civil Service is defined as "all appointive
positions in the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of the
Government of the United States, except positions in the uniformed
services." (5 U.S.C. § 2101). In the early 19th century,
government jobs were held at the pleasure of the president — a
person could be fired at any time. The spoils system meant that jobs
were used to support the political parties. This was changed in slow
stages by the
Pendleton Civil Service Reform ActPendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883 and
subsequent laws. By 1909, almost two thirds of the U.S. federal work
force was appointed based on merit, that is, qualifications measured
by tests. Certain senior civil service positions, including some heads
of diplomatic missions and executive agencies are filled by political
appointees. Under the Hatch Act of 1939, civil servants are not
allowed to engage in political activities while performing their
duties.
The U.S. civil service includes the competitive service and the
excepted service. The majority of civil service appointments in the
U.S. are made under the competitive service, but the Foreign Service,
the FBI, and other National Security positions are made under the
excepted service. (U.S. Code Title V)
U.S. state and local government entities often have competitive civil
service systems that are modeled on the national system, in varying
degrees.
As of January 2007, the federal government, excluding the Postal
Service, employed about 1.8 million civilian workers. The federal
government is the nation's single largest employer, although it
employs only about 12% of all government employees, compared to 24% at
the state level and 63% at the local level.[26] Although most federal
agencies are based in the
Washington D.C.Washington D.C. region, only about 16% (or
about 284,000) of the federal government workforce is employed in this
region.[27]
As of 2014, there are currently 15 federal executive branch agencies
and hundreds of subagencies.[28]
European Union[edit]
Main article: European Civil Service
The
European Civil ServiceEuropean Civil Service is the civil service serving the
institutions of the European Union, of which the largest employer is
the European Commission.
Civil servants are recruited directly into the institutions after
being selected by competitions set by EPSO, the official selection
office. They are allocated to departments, known as
Directorates-General (DGs), each covering one or more related policy
areas.
See also[edit]
General[edit]